The little church on Monument Circle has been giving away hot drinks during the Circle of Lights for decades, and selling a few cookies on the side as a youth fundraiser for quite a while.

But on Friday night, as the crowds were growing in anticipation of the Monument Circle tree lighting, city code enforcement officials told the kids from Christ Church Cathedral they had to pack up their cookies and cocoa and call it a night.

They had run up against a city ordinance enacted before the Super Bowl in 2012 that enables big Downtown special events to establish a "clean zone" where vendors are closely regulated, if not out-and-out prohibited. The church — and its outlaw cookie operation — fell into the clean zone for the Circle of Lights.

So, even though Santa made an appearance under the Circle's big tree, the church's sugar cookies — along with the chocolate chip, the peanut butter and the vegan cookies — were verboten. About 45 minutes before the lights were illuminated, the church was forced to close its operation. Church hospitality director Carl Michaelis asked if the kids could give away the hundreds of cookies left over, but that was denied, too.

"It's a little distressing," said Michaelis. "We have a lot of cookies."

Typically, the sale brings the kids around $1,000 for youth programs — things like choir trips to the National Cathedral. But the short sale took a bite out of the youth group's take, which was only about $600 for the evening. The cookies were donated by parishioners from the church and sold from the church's own property.

Code enforcement officials said the ordinance protects the hosts of large special events, such as the Super Bowl, the Final Four, Indiana Black Expo's Summer Celebration or the Circle of Lights from competing interests — having big Coors Light banners Downtown wouldn't do for a Super Bowl sponsored by Budweiser.

Indianapolis Downtown Inc., which hosts the Circle of Lights, asked for a code enforcement "sweep" of Monument Circle on Friday night, said code enforcement spokesman Adam Baker. Code enforcement officials consulted with IDI on whether to exempt the church, Baker said, and were told they should make them cease the cookie sales. IDI officials were unavailable for comment Saturday.

In addition to the church cookie sale, the Starbucks shop on the Circle had to shut down its own sidewalk sale, Baker said.

Christ Church Cathedral has a long history on Monument Circle, and with the Circle of Lights.

Within a few years of the Circle of Light's inception in 1962, Christ Church began giving away coffee as a bit of warm hospitality on typically cold nights. Over the years, that morphed into a hot cocoa giveaway. About 15 or 20 years ago, Michaelis said, someone got an idea to help the youth raise money by selling cookies for $1 a bag.

Such longstanding practices by private property owners usually qualify them for a special license, Baker said. But the church didn't have such a license.

Michaelis said church representatives weren't aware of the ordinance, or the need for a permit. They had staged their cookie sale last year — when the ordinance was already in effect — without incident.

As for what to do with the hundreds of cookies that went unsold, Michaelis said they likely will be served Sunday morning — during a weekly breakfast the church hosts for the homeless.

Call Robert King at (317) 444-6089. Follow him on Twitter at @rbtking.